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Creïvae
This page is under construction. More information will be added. Nei-creïvae /neː ˈkrɛjvæː/ - the new creïvae language will be referred to as simply creïvae (because of the difference in spelling of the previous version - kreivah). The newer approach to the creïvae language constructs a better, more accurate philosophical background of the grammar and implements loanwords (from Greek and Latin) as important part of the language (representing the human social constructs and philosophical approach to language concepts). Creïvae is based on its ancestor - kreivah (se kreivah z’e naṁ’) main concept of which is described based on a fictional character - kreivah the creator: “'''Kreiva the creator' (kreiva-qpulciön /ˈkrɛjva kopulciˈon/) is a fictional model person - the generic artist, composer, musician, poet, the representation of all the artistic people. It’s a kind of a person who wants to share their ideas with others and always tries to accomplish it in the most efficient and the most effective way with no thoughts lost in the process of speech. To do so, he uses his artificial language called se kreivah z’e naṁ’ /sɛ ˈkrɛjvæː ʒɛ namn/ (o qpulciönhe se kreivaz’ z’e naṁ’ /o kopulciˈonʲɛ .../) or just simply kreivah.”'' Classification Philosophical concept - oligosynthetic language Creïvae is a fusional language, but it can also be classified as oligosynthetic. It is a philosophical constructed language, which uses its philosophical concepts in word formation. It has a low number of morphemes which combine based on the philosophical reasoning behind the meaning of the words. The concepts are not static and can be changed, when a different point of view is proposed. Creïvae understands everything it describes as abstract concepts, even material objects. Here is a simplified example of how a verb "to remember" is created: The word is trasformed into a noun. memory = ability capacity of knowledge inteligence = ability capability of reasoning The concept is defined with simpler concepts using paralel concepts. knowledge = static (stored) information reasoning = process of (forming) information The process continues until all concepts needed to describe the desired concept are defined. Result: '"memory" = "ability" of "static information", or in creïvae: ''ue illumnhe ulciömn' /we ˈilːumnʲɛ ˈulkɪomn/ (possessive suffix '-h'/'-he'). The concepts are usually defined using basic articles with meanings like "process" or "paralel". Final merged word: '(a) uuluiciömn' /ˈwulwɪkɪom/ - "to remember" Finally the concept is merged into a single word. The main root is positioned first, the suffix is used from the main word and the articles can merge into stacked prefixes. Syntax Syntactically creïvae is head-initial with SOV word order. Phonology Consonants Creïvae uses consonants similar to most Indo-European languages, with three slightly unusual ones: r̥, ɬ, and ɺ As there are many loanwords used in creïvae, the sounds of the foreign languages are adopted as native sounds, these sounds are marked in light blue cells. Apart from the t͡s sound (from Latin) creïvae also uses ps and ks sound (from Greek). Vowels As it will be explained later, the e sound can be pronounced only in a long vowel form eː. Phonotactics Creïvae has theoretically no phonotactic constraints as it uses many loanwords with (almost) original pronunciation. However usually it's two consonants in an onset, a vowel (not a consonant form of 'i' or 'u') as a nucleus and two consonants in a coda. Syllable break and constructor ('-', '¨' and ':') Syllable break and constructor are invented nonofficial terms for letters used for separating vowel conflicts caused by the letter combinations ('ae', 'ei', 'aa' etc.), or constructing syllables that are otherwise uncomfortable to pronounce. Syllable constructor is a schwa sound ə written as ':'. It appears usually in long syllables that are hard to pronounce. Its function is separating the syllable in two shorter syllables one of which is pronounced with a slight schwa sound almost making the preceding consonant sound like a syllabic consonant. Example: bastw: (original kreivah word used as a greeting) is pronounced /bas.twə/. Syllable break can be a glottal stop ʔ written as '-' or a silent sound ∅ marked with a diaeresis '¨' above the second vowel. It is used to separate two vowels ('aa' /a/) in two syllables ('aä' /a.a/ or 'a-a' /aʔa/). More about the syllable stop is covered in the Writing System section. Stress Stress can appear on any syllable of the root. Even though its position is static when words inflect, the prescribed stress position is only recommended, not mandatory. Speaker can use stress on any syllable, and it's always considered a correct pronunciation. This is especially useful, when using creïvae in poetry. Writing System Creïvae uses the original kreivah script, but is also transcribed to Latin letters. There are no grammatical differences between the original script and the Latin transcription except the lack of additional diacritics in the Latin transcription (such as marks of loanword sounds and stress) and the punctuation marks placement. All letters' and letter combinations' sounds are demonstrated in the tables below: Vowels Unstressed vowels' sound Sound of 'a', 'e' and 'i' vowels differs if the vowel is not in the stressed syllable as demonstrated in the table above. Note that 'e' and 'i' have an identical sound when not stressed, unstressed sounds are marked in light grey cells. Sound of 'o' and 'u' remains unchanged, for that reason most suffixes contain only these wovels since they are usually unstressed and would make some grammatical complications. Syllable constructor (':') Syllable constructor ':' represents the schwa sound ə. Its use is explained in the Phonotactics section. Vowel length Creïvae distinguishes vowel length. To lengthen a vowel, a letter combination is used as demonstrated in the table below. The sound of these combinations is shifted towards the closed vowel sounds and remains unchanged in any situation. Vowels are lengthened when a possessive suffix '-h' (or '-he' after consonants) is added. After letters 'a' and 'e' the 'h' becomes 'e' and 'i'. Vowel letters can be doubled when inflecting and merging, but the doubled vowel letter has the same sound of the letter when not doubled ('aa' is simply a). Vowel syllable break (diaeresis or 'h') To distinguish between letter combinations and single letters, the diaeresis is used above the second vowel: 'eï' /ɛj/ ≠ 'ei' /eː/. It is possible to use the 'h' letter instead of the diaeresis to avoid using any diacritics ('crehivae' and 'creïvae' are both grammatically correct). Consonants Note that 'i' and 'u' can be both vowels and consonants. In the original kreivah language letters 'y' and 'w' were used instead (as in the common example word 'bastw:'). The letter 'q' can have two sounds, kʷ when placed before a vowel, and ko when placed before a consonant. It can never appear at the end of a word. The consonant letters in blue cells ('x') are used in loanword only and the consonant sounds in light blue cells are pronounced in the loanwords only. Syllbale break ('-') This syllable break represents a glottal stop sound ʔ and is used to separate the roots of merged words, when a vowel conflict appears Sound of the 'h' letter The letter 'h' is pronounced differently in different situations. Its usual sound is h, but when placed between two vowels it is silent /∅/ (syllable constructor), and when placed after a consonant and before a vowel it palatalizes the preceding consonant and is silent /◌ʲ∅/. The palatalization is demonstrated in the table below: "V" represents any vowel following the 'h' letter. Sound of the 's', 'z', 'r' and 'l' letters are slightly shifted to 'ʃ', 'ʒ', 'r̥' and 'ɬ' when palatalized. 'j' does not really change its sound as it is palatal already. Consonant length Consonants can be lengthened when doubling the consonant letter or adding a voiced/unvoiced variation of the sound before the doubled letter in some cases. Note that some of the sounds are changed when the consonant is lengthened. 'mn' is usually pronounced /mn/ at the end of a suffix, when the suffix 'mn' is positioned at the end of a word (when the word is not inflected) its sound is m. Sounds of 's', 'z', 'r' and 'l' shift slightly the same way as they do when palatalized. Doubled 'ii' and 'uu' can be confusing, as it can sound jː and wː or ji and wu depending on the grammatical meaning of the phoneme. Original kreivah script The original kreivah script is still used in creïvae with slight modifications, such as symbols for loanwords and various grammatical differences. Although kreivah script is considered to be an alphabet, it has similar properties to abjad. The letter order works the same as in alphabet system, but the letters are modified slightly to fit into a continuous flow. Kreivah script (and it's Latin transcription) does not use capital letters, but there are alternative initial variations of some letters (a, b, p, v, (w)). If a word starts with any of the listed letters, the letter is written with its initial variation, and so are all the letters following right after it. Example: bastw: (the first word in the picture above) would be written as BAstw: (capital letters representing the initial variations) Philosophy Word formation As mentioned in the Classification section, creïvae uses complex philosophical reasoning to express concepts. Here is a detailed example of how words are created: For example, let's create a verb "to remember". First we need to make a noun out of the verb, so in this case it is "remembering". Creïvae distinguishes several types of nouns, this particular noun is a procedural noun, as "remembering" is a process of "memory", which is a base noun. Now the concept is divided to other simpler concepts defining it, until it's possible to do so. ''It usually helps if we can find a contrasting''' concept. In this case it could be "inteligence", which is a common concept - people can be smart (know lots of things - "memory") or clever (be able to solve problems - "inteligence"). Here however we can't rely on the English language concepts, because "know stuff"' ≠ "have a good memory". So we won't focus on the fact that a person uses their memory or inteligence and we'll get to these concepts later. Instead we'll continue explaining the concept of the ability to use it.' ''At this point we can construct our definitions of words "memory" and "inteligence" (as abilities). "memory" is an ability to store information, whereas inteligence is an ability to process information. Again we'll convert "to store information" and "to process information" to nouns. We can use close English equivalents "knowledge" ("stored information") and "reasoning" ("processing information"). memory = ability capacity of knowledge inteligence = ability capability of reasoning Again we get other concepts to think about later - "capacity" and "capability", and as before, we'll focus on the general concept "ability". 'It doesn't seem to be possible to explain "ability" with simpler concepts, so we'll take that as a base concept, and we'll make up a word for it. Let's use 'ul' as a root and pick a common suffix '-ciömn' resulting in 'ulciömn' - "ability". Now we'll take a look at "knowledge" and "reasoning". knowledge = static (stored) information reasoning = process of (forming) information Creïvae distinguishes static nouns and procedural nouns with prefixes/articles 'ue' and 'ie'. "information" can (probably) no longer be divided further, but we can find a contrasting concept "matter", to which we can also return later. So now let's make up a word for "information". We'll use 'i' as root and a common suffix '-llumn' resulting in 'illumn' - "information". Finally, we have reached the bottom and we have created words for all the base concepts to construct the word we wanted. Result: '"memory" = "ability" of "static information", or in creïvae: ''ue illumnhe ulciömn' /we ˈilːumnʲɛ ˈulwɪkɪom/ (possessive suffix '-h'/'-he'). This can be merged to 'uluiciömn' /ˈulwɪkɪom/. (Article 'ue' becomes a prefix 'u-') To create a procedural noun "remembering" a procedural article/prefix is added again: 'ue uluiciömn'. The infinitive verb form is identical to the noun form it is based on with all articles merged to prefixes 'a uuluiciömn' /ˈwulwɪkɪom/ (article 'a' is added optionally). If a common suffix is ised, the verb conjugates regularilly according to the specific suffix. If a special suffix is created for the word, the conjugation must be also specified. This process also created some other ideas and possible word combinations, which are listed in the Lexicon section. Note that this also creates two different words 'uuluiciömn' (remember in a sense of "memorizing") and 'iuluiciömn' (remember - store information). This makes the distinction between perfect and imperfect verbs. Grammar Word formation There are three ways to define a concept: Personalisation, idealisation, negation and inversion extend the three main definitions. Nouns Noun prefixes and articles ... Common noun suffixes As mentioned before, the suffixes use mostly letters 'o' and 'u' as their sound does not not change when unstressed. -llumn -ciömn -tull Declension ... Declension of loanwords ... Root blending ... Pronouns - gender and animacy Creïvae does not distinguish genders nor animacy, so 'ce' can mean "he", "she", or "it", and the question 'ce te iuluiciö' can mean "who...", or "what...". Verbs more to be added... Syntax Creïvae has a subject-object-verb word order in all moods. In some situations, the subject can be omited, as the verb is conjugated according to the subject. For polar questions article 'te' is used at the beginning of a sentence (if no focus is specified), for'' non-polar questions, 'te' is placed at the position of the constituent that is asked for.'' In non-polar questions the subject can not be ommited, as it can result in different meaning: '''te uille? - Do you know? To construct imperative sentence, a suffix '-sz'/-sze' is used for any person, so the subject must be specified. Negation is allways formed using 'ezs' article at the beginning of a sentence or as an extention of the question article 'te' (te-ezs). The article 'ezs' means "no" or "not" on itself. Article 'isz' can be used to express inversion (rarely). Focus: In an indicative and imperative moods an article 'je' is used to mark the focus of the statement: jce ca iuluiciö, - He remembers him. (ce) ca je iuluiciö, - He remembers him. (ce) jca iuluiciö, - He remembers him. j:ve ca iillusz! - (You) Think about it! ve ca jiilusz! - Think about it! ve jca iilusz! - Think about it! In an interrogative mood, the focus is expressed with the placement of the 'te' article: tce ca iuluiciö? - Does he remember him? (ce) ca tiuluiciö? - Does he remember him? (ce) tca iuluiciö? - Does he remember him? In case of the non-polar questions, the 'te' article remains at the original position and an the 'je' article is used instead: j:ce te iuluiciö? - Who does he remember? (ce)' j:te iuluiciö?' - Who does he remember? Negation focus in indicative and imerative moods is expressed with the 'je' article as well: ezs (ce)' '''ca' jiillo'''',' - He does not think about it. ezs (ce) j:ca iillo, '''- He does not think about it. (He thinks, but about something else.) Lexicon Creïvae dictionary at conlangdictionary.wikia: Articles '''ue static ie procedural sze alternative se personalised fe idealised ezs negated isz inverted Dictionary fi-egcueaa-organartikulatellumn '"to speak" (the longest creïvae word so far) ''from latin organum articulatorium ( > organarticulatum) "organ of speech" '''uluiciömn "memory" uliiciömn "inteligence" ue illumn "knowledge" ie illumn "reasoning" illumn "information" sze illum "matter" se iillumn "thinker" fe illumn "order" a fillum "create" ezs fillumn "disorder" a ezsfillumn "break" isz fillumn "chaos" a iszfillumn "destroy" Example text Human rights declaration, Article #1: fe inumnhe antrophe se uluiiiciömnme ezs otullheje ni dignithe ni dikaiomhe uttullheje ue fisuluiiillumnhe om, antrophe - antropos ("human", Greek) dignithe - dignitas ("dignity", Latin) dikaiomhe - dikaiomam ("right", Greek) IPA: /fɛ ˈ''inumnʲɪ ''ˈ''anθɾopʲɪ sɛ ''ˈ''ulwɪjɪkɪomnmɪ eʃ ''ˈ''otulʲːɪ ni ''ˈ''dignɪtʲɪ ni dɪkæˈ''jomʲɪ ''ˈ''utːulʲːɪɺɪ we ''ˈ''fisulwɪjɪlːumnʲɪ om/ English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Category:Languages Category:Oligosynthetic conlangs